Summer kaiserschmarrn

Kaiserschmarrn is an Austrian dish of shredded pancakes tossed with rum-soaked raisins and topped with a sweet plum sauce and a sprinkle of sugar. I thought I’d bring a twist to this dish by using fresh raspberries and a rosewater cream. To me this dish tastes of summer and looks so colourful and pretty – perfect for serving at a garden party with a glass of sparkling wine!

There are a couple of legends about how this dish originated, but the one I’ve heard is that there was a Kaiser who’s chef was cooking him pancakes, but he was nervous and tripped as he was leaving the kitchen and so the pancakes were ruined. There was no time to make more and the Kaiser was going to be angry, so the chef just sprinkled them with plum jam and sugar and invented a new dish. The Kaiser thought the chef was an innovative genius and the dish kaiserschmarrn was born.

Ingredients

Serves 4

1 cup/100g flour

2 eggs

300ml milk

2 tbsp Icing/confectioner’s sugar

Punnet resh raspberries

1 cup natural yoghurt

1 tsp rosewater

Rose petals

Chopped unsalted pistachios

Method

Separate the egg yolks from the whites and beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.

Stir together the eggs, flour and milk adding the fluffy egg whites last to form the pancake batter.

Add to a frying pan and cook on each side for a couple of minutes.

Shred the pancakes in the pan using two forks, sprinkle over about a tbsp icing sugar, and continue to cook until the sugar has coated the pancake pieces and has started to caramelise.

Mix the rosewater into the yoghurt with 1tsp icing sugar.

Serve the kaiserschmarrn with a dollop of the rosewater cream and the fresh raspberries and sprinkle over the remaining icing sugar, rose petals and crushed pistachios. Best served hot with a glass of sparkling wine!